Every red-blooded male student at Arcadia Oaks High knows how traitorous it is to fraternize with the Arcadia Oaks Academy Moonrats. Steve has a friend with cyan blood.
For the record, this is an AU where Wizards just doesn’t happen.
I have attended exactly one high school game in my entire life, and I spent most of it staring at the cheerleaders. Expect some artistic license on what little I wrote about the football game.
I couldn't remember the exact layout of Arcadia Oaks High, so I ended up replacing it with the layout of my own high school.
CW: Steve thinking that Douxie is assaulting Krel (Steve is merely overprotective and mistaken, don’t worry) and references to toxic relationships and homophobia
AO3
FFN
They had won.
Steve had led them to victory, and this was their moment of glory.
The Arcadia Oaks High Moles had beaten the Arcadia Oaks Academy Moonrats at tonight’s home game, and they could suck it!
As was tradition, after the game Steve went to find go find his friends. Except, this year, it wasn’t to go find his teammates. It stung, but Steve had grown up a lot in the past almost-half year. He’d gone from a self-absorbed jerk who picked on anyone he perceived as lame to a guardian who defended the city and didn’t take his anger out on those undeserving. Well, he didn’t do it often, anyways. His therapist said it would probably take a while for him to completely outgrow the toxic mindset his bio-dad had instilled in him, and his former friends had encouraged.
Unfortunately, Steve’s two best friends on the football team hadn’t even begun to outgrow the toxic mindset. There was a reason why Steve didn’t hang out with Seamus and Logan outside of practice anymore. Several reasons, actually, but they pretty much all came back to either the fact that Seamus and Logan were still acting like douchebags, or the fact that Steve had bonded in battle with people that he and his former friends had once dubbed lame.
So instead of going to find Seamus and Logan so they could celebrate their crushing victory over the moonrats with pizza and root beer, Steve walked around to go find Toby and Krel to… probably celebrate with pizza and root beer, anyways. Darci, too, since she was here anyways, and she was in their friend group. And for that matter, maybe they’d invite Mary too since she might’ve showed up, though hopefully she was supporting the proper team instead of using the game as an excuse to go make out with Tight Jeans Hank. If she was still together with him, anyways. Steve was pretty sure that Darci was the only one other than Mary who could still keep track of Mary’s whirlwind romances.
Steve jogged up to Toby and Darci where they were sharing an Italian ice near the entrance of the bleachers. “Hey, you two want to – where’s Krel?”
“He left the bleachers, like, five minutes before the game ended?” Toby said.
Steve pouted, but not just because that meant Krel would have missed Steve’s awesome touchdown. “Really? Did he seem okay?”
“I think he was just bored. You know how Krel is, not interested in sports.” And then Toby muttered something under his breath, probably something along the lines of “me either.” These days, most of Steve’s friends weren’t jocks like him. At least Toby was dating the mole, which meant that he was into a vital aspect of sports if not sports themselves.
“You know where he went?” Steve was, well, he wasn’t worried about Krel. He was just a tiny bit concerned. Ever since Krel’s parents had died and Aja had left, Krel had seemed so adrift. He’d grown even more distant in the past two weeks, and so Steve and Toby had dragged him to the game. Well, mostly Steve had done the dragging, with Toby giving pleading looks about not wanting to be alone for the game.
Toby shook his head and frowned. “Didn’t say. He was on his phone.”
And Krel was far too accident-prone to walk while staring at a screen, especially if he was in his human form like he tended to be whenever he didn’t want to attract attention.
“He’s probably not far. I’ll go looking for him.”
“Do you want us to come with you?” Darci asked “See if he’s okay?”
Krel was probably fine, but Steve still couldn’t shake the unease. Besides, this was Arcadia Oaks. The world had nearly ended three times last summer, and troll-and-extraterrestrial attacks happened all the time last year. Just because things were peaceful these days it didn’t mean they wouldn’t take a turn for the worse (especially if Eli’s texted wizard conspiracy theories were to be believed).
“Stay here, and I’ll text you if there’s trouble.”
And then Steve began his trek around campus. He didn’t need to go far, just over to the bungalows when he saw a familiar glowing cyan form, perhaps glowing a little brighter than normal. Like Steve had suspected, Krel wasn’t far.
Except, Krel’s form was obscured by the marching band uniform of Arcadia Oaks Academy. No, Krel wasn’t wearing it; he was far too loyal to betray the moles like that by affiliating with the moonrats. The marching band uniform was being worn by a dark-haired guy pinning Krel to the bungalow by his upper two wrists as the guy kissed Krel.
Steve knew Krel didn’t like the idea of romance or kissing. It wasn’t just him being grossed out by his family member dating; Krel had been so confused by Mary’s whirlwind love life, more than just about anyone else at the school. Krel had also joined Steve in demanding that Toby and Darci get a room for their PDA. Krel wasn’t the type of person to sneak away from a football game to go make out, so that meant that this moonrat piece of shit was…
Steve’s hands curled into fists as he quickened his pace. Steve didn’t have his bat with him, but he didn’t need it to take down a fellow human. Steve was a Creepslayer, and he would slay this creep.
But before Steve could get too close, he heard a clicking noise that made him slow his jog from surprise. He’d heard that clicking noise before, but only from Aja when she was in her Akiridion form. It was a noise that meant “yes please continue kissing me like that.” Aja had been concerned over the fact that a human moan could mean both pain and pleasure, while Akiridion moans only meant the former.
Krel clicked again, more loudly this time. He laced one of his lower hands through the guy’s hair, making a fist in it. The other hand Krel rested on the guy’s back, grasping at the back of his uniform before slowly making its way downwards.
“Krel?” Steve interrupted before the kissing and Krel’s hand could go any further, feeling and sounding embarrassed and confused from what he’d heard and seen. Krel quickly pulled his wrists down from where they’d been pinned and released the guy’s body from his other hands. The guy took a half step away from Krel, his long face very red. His eyes were wide, and he postured himself like he would protect Krel from Steve, should anything go wrong.
“Steve! What are you doing here?” Steve remembered how Krel had used almost the exact same tone and expression the last time Steve and Toby had shown up to drag Krel out of his lab. Away from something he enjoyed being alone with. He sounded more shocked and embarrassed now, so at least that made two of them.
“Looking for you.”
Steve watched as the guy – Krel’s secret moonrat boyfriend? – turned to whisper something in, well, Steve still wasn’t sure if Aja and Krel had ears under their clothes or not, but it was where a human ear would be. And as Krel turned to the guy, it was easy to see Krel’s face morph into something far happier. Krel whispered something back, and the guy’s stance relaxed.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to keep you from your friends for so long, love,” Krel’s boyfriend said. “I’ll, uh, I should probably go. Early shift tomorrow.”
“Stay safe, Douxie,” Krel said, and Steve raised an eyebrow. What kind of name was that? He knew the moonrats were weird and from the rich side of town, but he hadn’t ever heard a name that weird. Maybe it was some sort of Akiridion pet name. Steve wouldn’t have pegged Krel for the type of guy to use pet names for his boyfriend, but Steve also hadn’t pegged Krel for the type of guy to date anyone.
Krel kissed his boyfriend on the cheek. The moonrat grinned like Krel had hung the moon and stars before running off. Krel watched him go with a lovesick expression, even after his form had faded into the darkness. And then, Krel whirled on Steve, fury and determination in his posture.
“Aja learns none of this.”
Wait, Krel hadn’t told Aja? Even if Krel dating at all didn’t sound like him, it felt very wrong for Krel to keep something so big from his twin sister.
“Did he put you up to this?” Steve asked, glancing back to where Krel’s boyfriend had run off. “Not telling us?”
“What? No. I was the one who brought up not wanting to tell you guys, not Douxie.” Krel wrapped his arms around himself.
“That… don’t tell me that’s actually his name.”
“You’re correct,” Krel said, and oh was the weirdness continuing, because Steve had never heard Krel say those words to anyone in a tone that wasn’t annoyed or smug, but if anything, Krel’s tone was soft. Perhaps a little guarded, but soft. “It’s the last syllable of his name with a diminutive suffix.” Oh, great, Krel was branching out his nerdiness into linguistics. But also, who gave their kid a name with that syllable at the end? Steve almost felt bad for Douxie.
Almost. His suspicion outweighed his pity.
“But how’d he feel about you hiding your relationship from us?”
Krel shrugged, looking away. “I mean, he understands not wanting a reaction.”
“Not wanting a…” Lead sunk deep in Steve’s stomach as he remembered Douxie’s protective stance. Sure, Arcadia Oaks was a pretty accepting place, but it’d only been two years since gay marriage had become legal country wide. And Steve knew the stereotypes about football players because he’d almost been one of those stereotypes a year ago. The main difference was that the football team included a pair of gay guys who managed to embody all the rest of the lessons of toxic masculinity. Even then, Steve had gotten into fights with some of the other football players over his friends being gay. Now if only those friends would quit being assholes.
“Krel,” Steve began softly. “You do know that none of us will hurt or make fun of you for being gay, right? You or Douxie.” Besides, Steve was pretty sure Darci had two dads, and Toby was pan.
“I actually keep forgetting people have a problem with that, on Earth,” Krel said. “Even my parents would’ve accepted me marrying another man, as long as he was a high enough status, and one or both of us was willing to undergo a couple of temporary medical procedures so we could beget an heir.” Krel wrinkled his nose at the last few words, but as his face smoothed a dark look came with it. “I think some people have given Douxie problems for that. I wish I could find them. I’ve been working on some long-range serrator upgrades.”
Steve swallowed. He’d forgotten how scary Krel could look when he was angry. “When you said, ‘not wanting a reaction,’ what did you mean?”
Krel sighed and activated his transduction. “You’re already having a reaction.”
“Yes, well, if you’d just told me about you and Douxie instead of me walking in on you two, I wouldn’t be having a reaction.”
“Yes, you would. Not this same reaction, but you would. You all would. I know this isn’t normal for me. I don’t get these feelings.”
“I mean, yeah, you dating is pretty weird for you” – Krel glared – “but from what Aja told me you two were pretty sheltered, especially since you didn’t sneak out.”
“No, it wasn’t just how I was raised. Before Aja snuck out for the first time, she had already gushed to me about a dozen different crushes on intergalactic pop stars and athletes. I never had a single crush before this summer. I’ve never gotten these types of feelings for anyone. Ever. In my entire life. I didn’t even get feelings for Douxie until we’d known each other for weeks.”
“Wait, really? Not even a little crush?” Krel looked even more uncomfortable, so Steve decided to change the subject. “So, uh, how’d you and Douxie meet?”
“Well, we sort of, er, bumped into each other? A couple nights after… a couple nights after I decided to stay on Earth, that is.” Slowly, the melancholy look on Krel’s face turned into a smile. “Well, he claims we met at the Battle of the Bands, but I don’t remember so I don’t count that. I think that’s when he got a crush on me. And we kept texting, and I kept coming over to hang out with him at his shifts at the bookstore when I wasn’t working in my lab or hanging out with you guys. And then, a parson ago, I suddenly had feelings for him. I don’t know why, but one day we were friends and the next I was fighting against the realization I was in love with him.”
“When’d you two start dating?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Oh, so that’s why you got all distant.” Steve swallowed down his school loyalty, as traitorous as it felt to do so. Douxie was a moonrat, but he also made Krel happy. “You should invite him to hang out with us sometime. It’d probably be easier than keeping him a secret.”
“Uh, no. They’re going to be all weird about us.”
“Only for a little bit! And they’ll probably have less of a reaction than me, as long as you tell them instead of making them find you two making out. Though, good luck telling Eli you’re dating a guy from our rival school.”
“Exactly! No one we both know is going to find out!”
There’s people chasing us and I pulled you into the alley with me and wow you’re close (from 50 cliché tropes and prompts)
I ended up writing this from the opposite POV than the one in the prompt 😅
AO3
FFN
Krel hated running. He had gone through all the physical exercise training growing up and had passed at an acceptable rate, but he had never been as interested in them as Aja was.
Running was even worse when he was in his human form. He needed to breathe like this, and right now he was running out of breath. He and Douxie were both running out of breath.
The two of them were running through the myriad of streets of New York, running from a servant of the Arcane Order. She reminded Krel of bounty hunters, even if her motivations were completely different. She blended in incredibly well despite all her bluster about how she would get revenge on how Hisirdoux had embarrassed her masters with his Eternal Time Trap. If it were anyone else, then the envious and angry part of Krel that he tried to keep quiet would be screaming with indignation. After all, Krel had been the one who had built it, Douxie had just put it into use and provided material for it. How dare anyone else take credit for Krel's engineering achievements? Instead, all Krel felt was mild pang of annoyance and an even greater relief that he was not the main target. That, and fear for Douxie, and wishing that Krel had been credited just so that Douxie wouldn't have the entire burden on himself.
While the servant's blending in with humans kept magic from being exposed to the world it also meant that Douxie and Krel couldn't reveal themselves. That meant running. At least Krel wouldn't fall behind, since Douxie was holding his hand. It should have been uncomfortable since Douxie's hand was clammy and Krel wasn't big on physical contact, but right now it felt right. It was probably adrenaline.
Douxie pulled Krel into an empty alleyway and then pressed an arm around Krel. Krel's head was pressed against Douxie's chest, with the rest of their bodies firmly pressed against each other.
It felt like an incredibly intimate pose, since Krel's head was right next to where Douxie's core would be, if he were an Akiridion. As it was, Krel could hear Douxie's heartbeat over his own. It was fast.
Douxie wasn't Akiridion, though, so the way he was flushing must have been from running. Quietly, Krel tilted his gaze so he could look up at Douxie. He didn't look back at Krel. Douxie's eyes were wide and staring nervously at the opening of the alley.
"How long until your wormhole is working again?" Douxie whispered in a breathy voice.
"At least another hour." Which was an improvement on how it had been when he had first created it, with him only being able to use the wormhole once per week instead of twice per day. "Sorry."
Douxie was silent and tense. Probably watching and waiting for the servant to come find them. Offhandedly, Krel began to wonder if the thing he had seen in one of the movies Toby had shown him was true - that public displays of affection made people uncomfortable, and that they could be used to better hide people. Public displays of affection certainly made Krel uncomfortable. But, would it make the servant uncomfortable enough to ignore the two of them if Krel were to kiss Douxie? They were already very close together, so it wouldn't be too hard to move to start kissing.
"Can you start running again soon?"
"Yeah." Any disappointment in Krel's voice was entirely because he didn't want to start running again. He didn't actually want to kiss Douxie. Or, well, he did, but that was only out of a combination of intellectual curiosity and the desire to not be caught and killed. Only those reasons, and no others.
Douxie released Krel and began to take off his hoodie. He then held it out to Krel. "Put this on."
As Krel did as he was told, Douxie ran a hand through his hair. It glowed before changing to a slightly paler shade of gold than his eyes.
"This'll only last fifteen minutes, so let's try to get back to the apartment or by then." Douxie held out his hand, and Krel took it.
Having a vengeful god constantly ranting within your head is painful, so Krel is interested in any possible solution. Now if only Douxie would believe him on this.
My brain came up with this while putting away dishes and thinking about Krel being semi-possessed by Gaylen, and then I decided that I need practice writing fluffy content. The title comes from Paramore’s “The Only Exception”.
Krel’s demiaroace in this, btw.
CW: references to drug abuse/overdosing in the first two paragraphs, references to canonical deaths, and Gaylen being an intrusive thot
AO3
FFN
Krel gripped the edges of his faceplate and squeezed his eyes shut. None of the pain medications he had taken were working even though he had taken the maximum dosage, and even though he was now immortal he didn’t want to see if taking too many pills would cause lasting side effects.
(Though, that certainly would’ve been a less grief-inducing way of killing Morando, by just dumping a metric ton of pain meds down his throat and waiting for him to die. It probably wouldn’t have worked, though, because Morando was doing what Gaylen wanted. Morando was causing destruction without any care for who he hurt.)
Between Krel’s breathing and Gaylen’s ranting, everything was so loud. He heard Douxie shout Krel's name and the sound of pounding feet. Krel felt a pair of familiar, comforting hands grab Krel's shoulders. If Krel had to pinpoint the first time he ever felt sensual attraction, it was when Douxie freed Krel from the ice and placed his hands on Krel’s shoulders. And then, in the slightly-longer-than-a-year since, other forms of attraction for Douxie eventually followed.
Gaylen began to rant about how, as his heir, Krel was better than all of these stupid mortals. Yes, even the immortal ones, because they were not gods. Krel tried to point out the flaw of calling Douxie an immortal mortal. Gaylen retaliated by sending a spike of pain and the memory of Douxie’s dead body to Krel.
“He won't shut up,” Krel says. “I can't think; he’s just so loud.”
“Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay.” One of Douxie’s hands ran down Krel’s arm until Douxie took Krel’s hand away from his faceplate. And, it felt nice to have the release of pressure from his head. That, and the gentle way that Douxie rubbed his thumb over the back of Krel’s hand.
“I just want my head to be clear,” Krel admitted, if only because he didn’t want to admit to other things.
“I mean,” Douxie said, in a strangely beguiling tone, “I know of something that might... nope.” At the last word, his tone broke into something far more embarrassed. At the same time, Douxie dropped Krel’s hand.
Krel opened his eyes and brought the rest of his hands down to his sides. Douxie was looking away from him, cheeks slightly reddened.
“Something that might...” Krel prodded.
“It was stupid, I mean, I really doubt you’d be interested.”
“Douxie, I’m interested in literally anything that will shut him up.” Gaylen retaliated by ranting louder.
Douxie didn’t look convinced. “I mean, I think you should hear what I came up with first, and just know that it doesn’t have to mean anything beyond me trying to cure your headache if you don’t want it to mean anything.”
“Don’t want what to mean anything?”
Douxie swallowed before gazing directly into Krel’s eyes. “Can I kiss you?”
The very idea that someone might dare to ask Krel to kiss them made Gaylen very angry, and if it were anyone else Krel would have agreed with Gaylen. But it was Douxie, and so that made Gaylen even angrier. Krel winced at the outburst.
Douxie flinched. “I get it, there’s a reason why I said it was stupid, forget-”
“No. Could you, please?” Krel licked his lips, annoyed when his tongue managed to catch on one of his own fangs. Gaylen’s ranting took on a gloating tone. “Please kiss me?”
Douxie’s lips were on Krel’s as soon as the words left them. Krel’s eyes widened before they slipped closed. Gaylen’s angry ranting got even louder before Douxie turned his face by just a fraction and -
Oh.
Oh sweet Seklos, there was silence. And Douxie was kissing Krel, and it was so nice. It was better than anything Krel could have ever imagined. Which, granted, he hadn’t imagined that kisses could be anything but awkward like a too-tight hug with someone who had cold hands, and he had been wrong about kisses. He wouldn’t have minded if this moment never ended.
But it did, with Douxie pulling away, red-faced and chest heaving like the simple act of moving their lips together was heavy exercise. Which, to be fair, Krel couldn’t recall feeling Douxie’s breath against his face during their kiss, so perhaps Douxie had been holding his breath?
“Did that help?” Douxie asked in a breathy voice.
Krel nodded. “At best you managed to banish him for good, at worst he’s sulking, which hopefully will last a few horvaths. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” Douxie winced and looked away. “I mean, if you don’t want to do it again you definitely don’t have to, I’m not trying to pressure you or anything.”
Krel raised an eyebrow. It almost sounded like, no, that was unlikely. Then again, Douxie had been the one to initiate the kiss, so maybe?
“Douxie,” Krel said, watching Douxie look at him out of the corners of his captivating eyes. “When you mentioned that the kiss didn’t have to mean anything if I didn’t want it to mean anything, did you want it to mean anything?”
Douxie buried his face in his hands. The tips of his ears were now red. “Yes, but I didn’t ask you for it to mean anything other than making Gaylen shut up.”
Krel put a hopefully-comforting hand on Douxie’s shoulder. “I would’ve been happy with it meaning something, even in retrospect. Um, are you interested in going on a date with me this weekend, assuming that the world doesn’t try to end again?”
Douxie looked up at him, grinning. “I think I’ll always be interested in spending time with you.”
A Krel-centric animatic set to Bo Burnham's "My Whole Family..." Some specific scenes would include:
Everytime I go to dinner
It seems like I'm getting a little bit thinner.
I'll sit down at the breakfast table.
A zoom-in on the Tarron breakfast table, with Lucy cooking pancakes. When Krel walks in, everyone turns to look at him.
Now my glory days are gone.
I was John Elway; now I'm Elton John.
Krel DJ's only for the colors to suddenly change to a pride flag.
If I'm gay, hey God, strike me dead...
[piano solo]
Krel monologues to Gaylen's core, and instead of doing nothing or killing Krel, Gaylen's core merges with Krel, transforming him into a winged form. Mother's icon floats over and tells him that "that's inconclusive"
Because... even my boyfriend thinks I'm gay... motherfucker.
You all probably think I'm gay.
Man, this song is counterproductive...
La la la la la...
Douxie offers Krel a gay pride flag and Krel explains that while Krel is fine with being considered an mlm, he does not want to define his attraction beyond demiaroace. Douxie smiles, puts the flag on himself as a cape, and asks Krel if he wants to go smite some aphobes together. Krel smiles at this.
Easy-Bake Oven was just a phase.
A younger Krel taking apart an Easy-Bake Oven
Send me a 📽 and I’ll tell you about an animatic I’ll never make
